Elevated Water Oxidation by Cation Leaching Enabled Tunable Surface Reconstruction

Water electrolysis is one promising and eco-friendly technique for energy storage, yet its overall efficiency is hindered by the sluggish kinetics of oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Therefore, developing strategies to boost OER catalyst performance is crucial. With the advances in characterization techniques, an extensive phenomenon of surface structure evolution into an active amorphous layer was uncovered. Surface reconstruction in a controlled fashion was then proposed as an emerging strategy to elevate water oxidation efficiency. In this work, Cr substitution induces the reconstruction of NiFe_xCr_2-xO₄ during cyclic voltammetry (CV) conditioning by Cr leaching, which leads to a superior OER performance. The best-performed NiFe_0.25Cr_1.75O₄ shows a ~1500 % current density promotion at overpotential η=300 mV, which outperforms many advanced NiFe-based OER catalysts. It is also found that their OER activities are mainly determined by Ni : Fe ratio rather than considering the contribution of Cr. Meanwhile, the turnover frequency (TOF) values based on redox peak and total mass were obtained and analysed, and their possible limitations in the case of NiFe_xCr_2-xO₄ are discussed. Additionally, the high activity and durability were further verified in a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) cell, highlighting its potential for practical large-scale and sustainable hydrogen gas generation.